Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors net worth is $5 Million. Also know about Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors bio, salary, height, age weight, relationship and more …

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Wiki Biography

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors was born on 10 April 1921, in Brooklyn, New York City USA, to parents Marcella Nondrigan and Alban ‘Allan’ Connors, of Irish descent. He was an actor, writer and professional basketball and baseball player, one of the few athletes in American professional sports’ history who played in both Major League Baseball and the NBA. However, Connors is perhaps best known for having played the role of Lucas McCain in the hit ABC TV series “The Rifleman”. Chuck Connors passed away in November 1992.

So just how wealthy was Chuck Connors? As sources state, Connors had established a net worth of over $5 million. His wealth was acquired during his professional baseball and basketball careers, but largely during his career in the entertainment industry.

Connors grew up in west Brooklyn. He excelled in baseball and basketball which helped him to earn a scholarship to a private high school, Adelphi Academy. Upon matriculating in 1939, he enrolled in Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey on a baseball scholarship and played for the college baseball and basketball teams. Two years later he dropped out of college and joined the army during the Second World War as a tank-warfare instructor, but managed to continue playing both sports during his service.

When discharged in 1946, Connors briefly joined the Boston Celtics basketball team, becoming the first player in the NBA history to break a glass backboard. He then left for spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers, a major-league baseball club. He returned to the Celtics during the 1967-68 season, but went on to devote himself to his baseball career, playing in several minor leagues at various places such as in Mobile Alabama, Montreal Canada, Rochester New York and Newark New Jersey. In 1949 Connors finally joined the Dodgers but soon returned to Montreal. Then in 1950 he joined the Chicago Cubs and later played in the minor leagues again, for the Cubs’ team the Los Angeles Angels. His baseball and basketball years contributed to raise his net worth.

In 1951 Connors was offered a small role in the movie “Pat and Mike” by the MGM casting director Bill Grady, a passionate Angels fan. Connors was cast in the role of a police captain, actually earning $12,000 before the baseball spring training started, which was more than double his baseball salary, but he went on to play his last season with the Angels in 1952. The following year he retired from baseball to devote himself to his acting career, taking roles in the 1953 movies “Code Two”, “South Sea Woman” and “Trouble Along the Way”. He went on to appear in a number of television series of the time, such as “The Loretta Young Show”, “City Detective”, “Private Secretary” “Adventures of Superman”, “Gunsmoke” and “Crossroads”, to name a few. His acting career grew and his net worth certainly improved.

Connors’ big break came with the 1957 film “Old Yeller”. His performance as a strong father figure generated astonishing popularity, significantly added to his wealth and led him to be cast in the hit ABC Western series “The Rifleman”, as Lucas McCain, the role which would remain Connors’ signature; he played a Wild West rancher owning a customized rapid-fire Winchester rifle, in the series which lasted from 1958 to 1963, was the first to portray a widowed father raising a son alone. It became extremely popular and considerably boosted Connors’ wealth.

Meanwhile, Connors appeared in numerous other television series and movies, such as the 1963 movies “Flipper” and “Move Over, Darling”. He hosted the 1973 series “Thrill Seekers”, and numerous episodes of the radio series “Family Theater”. His part in the 1977 mini series “Roots” brought him a nomination for an Emmy Award.

Overall, Chuck Connors appeared in more than 65 movies and over 50 TV productions, which established him as a Hollywood star and earned him an appreciable fortune. In 1991 Connors became an inductee into the Western Performance Hall of Fame.

Speaking of his personal life, Connors was married three times. His first marriage was with Elizabeth Jane Riddell Connors lasting from 1948 to 1931, and they had four sons together. In 1963 he married his co-star Kamala Devi, however, their marriage ended in 1973. He then married another co-star, Faith Quabius in 1977, but they divorced two years later. At the time when he died, his companion was Rose Mary Grumley. He died of lung cancer in 1992, being aged 71.

Connors was active in Republican politics, a passionate supporter of President Richard Nixon. At a party at Nixon’s Western White House in California in 1973, Connors met Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, whom he visited in the Soviet Union several years later.

Connors founded the Chuck Connors Charitable Foundation through which he hosted a golf tournament each year to help raise money for the Angel View Crippled Children’s Foundation.

IMDB Wikipedia “Adventures of Superman” (1955) “Branded” (1965-1966) “City Detective” “Cowboy in Africa” (1967-1968) “Family Theater” “Pat and Mike” “Private Secretary” “The Loretta Young Show” “The Rifleman” (1958-1963) “Thje Big Country” (1958) “Thrill Seekers” (1973-1974) “Werewolf” (1987) $5 million 1.98 1921 1921-04-10 1992 1992-11-10 Actor Adelphi Academy Adrian Gonzalez Allen Connors April 10 Bill Grady Brooklyn California Chuck Connors Chuck Connors Net Worth Clayton Kershaw Crossroads Cy Young Disabled list Earned run average Elizabeth Riddell (1948–61) Emmy Award (1977) Faith Quabius (1977–80) Gunsmoke Jeffrey Kamala Devi Kamala Devi (1963–72) Kevin Los Angeles Los Angeles “Dodgers” Los Angeles Dodgers minor league players Lucas McCain Major League Baseball Major League Baseball All-Star Game Marcella Londrigan Michael New Jersey (didn’t graduate) New York New York City November 10 professional basketball and baseball player Roots Seton Hall University in South Orange Spenser: For Hire (1985) Steven U.S. Writer

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Quick Info

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Trademarks

1. His rifle.
2. Brooklyn accent.
3. Deep commanding voice
4. Strong jawline and bold blue eyes
5. Towering height and athletic physique

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Quotes

• [About being a rugged sports player before he became a rugged leading man] I’m in about as good shape as when I quit baseball in 1952.
• [In 1958] You’re doing fine work. That pitch was right in there.
• [of Barry Goldwater who suggested he try for the Senate in February 1967 during a conversation at the Tucson National Country Club] I was in the foursome in front of him and Arnold Palmer. We’ve met several times before and we were talking about Ronnie’s [Ronald Reagan] election and politics in general when the senator said I should run for the Senate. I was flattered. I told him I didn’t think it would be possible. He told me I might change my mind later on.
• There were two things wrong with me. I had a crew cut and I’ve never been on a horse. I did something about it. I let my hair grow and I shopped around for a horse.
• [on the cancellation of The Rifleman (1958)] I knew what [The Lucy Show (1962)] would do to our ratings and I didn’t want to wait around until our show was dropped and I might be an actor nobody wanted. The show would have gone five years, and that’s long enough. By that time, you have done everything possible with your characters. If you keep on going, you’re just cheating the public.
• [on his popularity while playing the 40-something Lucas McCain on The Rifleman (1958)] What did I find out? That the concept of “Rifleman” is sound. I asked if people wanted any changes. Most of them said to leave it as it is. I asked if they wanted Lucas McCain to marry. They said no.
• [In 1961] I’ve been wanting to do a movie. I’ve had some offers, but they always wanted me to play the same kind of character as Lucas McCain [The Rifleman (1958)]. So I turned the pictures down, including The Alamo (1960). People see me for free every week as Lucas; why would they pay to see me in the same type of role?
• [In 1953] I owe baseball all that I have and much of what I hope to have. Baseball made my entrance to the film industry immeasurably easier than I could have made it alone. To the greatest game in the world I shall be eternally in debt.
• [on how he landed the starring role in South Sea Woman (1953)] I had done just a couple of pictures, and I was sitting outside a little dressing room at Warner Bros, and they were testing a lot of people [for the role of Pvt. Davie White] and I was sitting in my Marine uniform waiting to be called and I went out to get a breath of fresh air, when down the street comes Burt Lancaster in a Marine uniform. And in those days the stars never tested with the actors. So I said to him, “Mr. Lancaster what are you doing here?” And he was a baseball fan, so he just decided to come down and test with me. So he took me in the dressing room to, as he said, “run the lines”, and I didn’t even know what that expression meant then. Finally I figured him out and I said, “Oh, you mean you want to practice?” So anyhow we read the scene and man he looked at me and said, “Boy we’ve got to work on this!” About then my name is called on the loudspeaker to come in on stage and Burt goes to the door and yells out to the people, “Hey, I’m talking here, we’ll be another 20 minutes, go ahead and test somebody else”. Well he went over that scene, seven pages long, to give me some semblance of approaching it proper. And then I went in and did it and got the part. But Burt took that time on his own and I gotta give him credit.
• [on working in Pat and Mike (1952)] They paid me $500 for my week’s work in that movie. I figured they’d made some mistake on the adding machine, but I stuck the check in my pocket and shut up. Baseball, I told myself, just lost a first baseman.
• I’m more than satisfied to stay put in Los Angeles. The Coast League is one of the best leagues in baseball and the living and playing conditions are superior.
• I have only five days to win the job. So I can’t take time out for injuries.
• [regarding his baseball career] I was a switch-hitter, remember? At most things, I’m a good with one hand as the other.
• [In 1988] Somebody would like to have that [my agent]. He’ll take that instead of commission.
• [comparing his baseball and acting careers] So why not be a switch hitter with the rifle, too? Let’s learn both ways.
• [In 1960] What’s cost? This is insurance. At what we pay Connors, what will it cost if he’s crippled?
• [on his first introduction to Johnny Crawford, who was auditioning to play his son Mark in The Rifleman (1958)] I remember the first time I saw him, I was sitting there with the producer and we were interviewing kids to play Mark. We must have interviewed 20 or 30, then Johnny came in and before we even talked to him I said, “That’s him, that’s The Rifleman’s son”.
• [In 1987 about playing the lead in Werewolf (1987)] It’s played very straight and dramatically, but with a tinge of black humor, I play evil incarnate, a 1,600-year-old man in full control of his werewolfism. Janos will kill and eat anybody and anything. Eric, on the other hand, kills only bad people in defense of his own life or those of innocent victims.
• [In 1992, about being typecasted because of The Rifleman (1958)] If you’re ever being typecasted–as most of us are– that’s a great way to be typecasted. So, “The Rifleman” is still popular with a lot of people, and I’m proud to be associated.
• [In 1989] I was a bum of a hitter just not cut out for the majors. But, I will never forget Stan’s kindness. When he finished watching me cut away at the ball, Stan slapped me on the back and told me to keep swinging.
• [About the character he was best-known for] I can never get rid of The Rifleman (1958), and I don’t want to. It’s a good image. Basically, [the show] was the simplicity of the love between the father and the son. That was the foundation. The rifle was for show, but the relationship was for real. There was some violence, but at the end, I would explain to the boy that the violence was not something we wanted to do, but had to do.
• Now who goes to the games in LA? Producers, directors, writers, casting directors. So because of the good year, I became a kind of favorite of the show business people, unbeknownst to myself.
• [on his Lucas McCain character] Lucas was a righteous character, despite all the violence. We had the benefit of the father-son relationship, so I could have a little scene at the end of the show where I would explain to Mark, essentially, that sometimes violence is necessary, but it isn’t good. And there was a lot of violence on The Rifleman (1958). We once figured out that I killed on the average of two and a half people per show. That’s a lot of violence, but it was always covered by the scene with the little boy. And he would say, in essence, “Gee, you won Pa”. And I would say, “Wait a minute son. You never win when you kill someone. It demeans you, it takes something away. People have got to learn to do away with violence and guns, and to love each other”. And the viewers would forget the fact that I had killed three people during the show, because of the tender epilogue with Mark [Johnny’s favorite scenes]. The warm father-son relationship was the heart of the program, and not only did we perform it, but Johnny and I became very close friends.
• [Of Johnny Crawford] When Johnny came on the set in 1958, he was a little 12-year-old boy. He called everyone in the cast or crew “Sir” or “Ma’am”. During the course of the five years of our run, he had two hit records, and he was nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor. And yet, when the show was finished after five seasons, Johnny went around and thanked everyone in the cast and crew, and he still called them “Sir” or “Ma’am”.
• Well, it isn’t because I’m the fidgety guy, seriously, I have to sit there like a mummy you can’t move. Regular makeup you can turn around and I sit there like that, and the worst part of it is, after working 14 hours, I can’t just take it off, I have to sit for another hour because of the way they made these appliances, and they have to be taken out very slowly.
• [on The Rifleman (1958)’s theme song] I hear the same thing everywhere I go.
• [In 1973] The President gave me about two dozen presidential tie clips and ladies’ pins, with instructions to spread them around when I thought it appropriate, Brezhnev [Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev] will get more than a tie clip. I’ve ordered two engraved Colt revolvers for the General Secretary, Brezhnev is quite a western buff.
• I don’t want my kids growing up believing that there is nothing destructive in the world. I want them to know that there is good and bad in the world, that you can be hurt physically, that guns can kill you, that drugs are bad for you, that not everyone means well.

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Important Facts

• $25,000 /week (1967)
• $12,000 /week + percentage
• $7,500 /week
• He was most widely known to be a social butterfly.
• On The Rifleman (1958), his character had used a lot of rifles, in real-life, he owned rifles.
• Connors wasn’t the only baseball star to appear on The Rifleman (1958), a couple of former baseball stars appeared on that show were: Duke Snider and Don Drysdale.
• He smoked three packs of Camel cigarettes a day until the 1970s.
• Took part in a parade in New York in support of the Vietnam War in 1967, and campaigned for his friend Ronald Reagan.
• Was a Boy Scout.
• Was a member of the Sheriff’s Advisory Board of Orange County, California.
• He joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949.
• Connors was one of only twelve athletes in history to have played for both Major League Baseball and in the NBA.
• Appeared on the front cover of TV Guide five times.
• Acting mentor and friend of Johnny Crawford.
• His father was born in Dunville and his mother in St. Marys, Placentia Bay, both in the Dominion of Newfoundland (now Canada). They were both of Irish descent.
• Almost one year before his death, his first wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Connors, died on February 27, 1992, after a long illness.
• Chuck Connors died on November 10, 1992, at 71. A couple of years before his death, he was devastated to hear about Burt Lancaster’s stroke. He tried calling his office one day, but his office wasn’t releasing any information at that time. Connors sent a letter in support of David Fury’s nomination of Lancaster to the Cowboy Hall of Fame and signed the petition David sent to the American film Institute nominating Burt for the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.
• Future The Rifleman (1958) co-star, longtime friend and devoted fan, Johnny Crawford, had once said in an interview that when he was just a little boy, he too was an avid baseball fan, like Connors was, and would bring his baseball equipment whenever both he and Connors would be on location, during filming.
• Future comedians, Bill Rafferty and Vicki Lawrence, announcers Burton Richardson and Randy West, actors David Cassidy, Kathy Garver, Clarence Gilyard Jr., Bill Mumy, and talk show hostess, Oprah Winfrey describes him as one of their childhood television heroes.
• Future actor LeVar Burton was also said to be a huge fan of Connors’ series The Rifleman (1958), as a little boy.
• Before he was an actor, he was a professional basketball and baseball player.
• After he won a scholarship attending a private high school, he played basketball, football & baseball.
• Had won numerous scholarships while in high school, but chose to attend Seton Hall College (now Seton Hall University).
• His college studies were interrupted when he was enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
• Resumed his sports career after the war had ended. Connors had no choice other than to play professional basketball, when he continued to play baseball.
• He had 10 hobbies: golfing, riding horses, reading, swimming, fishing, poetry writing, spending time with his family, baseball, philanthropy and politics.
• Was best friends with: James Drury, Doug McClure, John Smith, Adam West, Jerry Lewis, Angela Lansbury, Joey Bishop, Regis Philbin, Paul Fix, Fess Parker, Gregory Peck, Alex Cord, James Arness, Peter Graves, Michael Landon, Robert Reed, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Alvy Moore, Dabbs Greer, Richard Anderson, Gene Barry, Bill Quinn, Charlton Heston, Aaron Spelling, Tom Helmore, Richard Nixon, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Mickey Rooney, Julie Adams, Jeff York, Aldo Ray, Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev.
• His parents were Allan Connors, who was a longshoreman and Marcella Lundrigan Connors, a housewife.
• Before he was an actor, he spent most of the war as a tank-warfare instructor in Camp Campbell, Kentucky, before West Point, New York.
• Future talk show hosts – his friend, Regis Philbin and Arsenio Hall, were once said to be their admirable television heroes. Philbin was a young adult while Hall was just a child.
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on July 18, 1984.
• At age 13, he remembered he was a lousy first baseman, and the man who made the biggest impact on his life was his coach on a team called the Celtics, a diminutive gent named John Flynn.
• Years after The Rifleman (1958), he was a spokesperson for the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in the early 1970s.
• His father, Allan died in 1966, followed by his mother, Marcella, who died in 1971.
• Graduated from Adelphi Academy – a private high school in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940.
• His series The Rifleman (1958) was canceled at the end of the fifth season, because both the actor himself and co-star Johnny Crawford had decided to move on to other projects.
• Remained good friends with Johnny Crawford during and after The Rifleman (1958).
• Best remembered by the public for his starring role as Lucas McCain on The Rifleman (1958).
• Biography in: “The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives.” Volume 3, 1991-1993, pp. 116-118. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2001.
• Was a film “enemy” of Charlton Heston at least twice — as Buck Hannesey in The Big Country (1958) and as Tab Fielding in Soylent Green (1973).
• In June 1973, he befriended Soviet Secretary General Leonid Brezhnev in a meeting at the White House. Connors traveled to the Soviet Union in December 1973, and presented Brezhnev with two Colt revolvers. In 1982, he asked his friend President Ronald Reagan if he could attend Brezhnev’s funeral service, but he was not allowed to be part of the official US delegation.
• A longtime smoker, he was hospitalized with pneumonia three weeks before his death.
• He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party as well as a frequent guest at the White House during the administration of his close friend President Richard Nixon.
• Was an altar boy and parishioner at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
• Before the 1940 baseball season, he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur free agent.
• On October 10, 1950, he was traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers – with whom he had appeared with in one game in 1949 – with Dee Fondy to the Chicago Cubs for Hank Edwards and cash. He spent part of the 1951 season with the Cubs.
• Accepted the role of Mr. Slausen in Tourist Trap (1979) because he wanted to “become the Boris Karloff of the ’80s”.
• He was the first NBA player to shatter a backboard; he did it while playing for the Boston Celtics in 1946.
• Lucas McCain, Connors’ character on The Rifleman (1958), was ranked #32 in TV Guide’s list of the “50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time” [20 June 2004 issue].
• Inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1991.
• In a 1997 biography titled “The Man Behind the Rifle”, author David Fury says that “Chuck” Connors acquired his nickname while an athlete playing first base. He had a habit of calling to the pitcher: “Chuck it to me, baby, chuck it to me!”.
• Was elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1991.
• Very likely the only guest commentator on Monday Night Baseball to use the F-word.
• Almost suffered the same fate in each of his two television westerns. On a 10-2-61 episode of The Rifleman (1958) called “The Vaqueros”, he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Mexican bandits. On an 11-14-65 episode of Branded (1965) called “Fill No Glass for Me”, he was stripped to the waist, tied to a tree and left to die under a scorching sun by a group of Indian warriors (in both cases he survived).
• According to an article on television westerns in Time Magazine (March 30, 1959), Connors stood 6’5″ tall, weighed 215 pounds, and had chest-waist-hips measurements of 45-34-41.
• Chuck Person, an NBA Player, is named after him.
• Four sons; Mike Connors, Jeff Connors, Steve Connors, Kevin Connors.
• Connors also played professional basketball with the Boston Celtics.
• Played major league baseball (for the Chicago Cubs) in 1951.

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Filmography

Kevin Joseph Aloysius Connors Awards